I haven’t DNF’d a race since I was racing mountain bikes in 1999-ish. I broke that streak on Sunday when I pulled the pin on the run portion of the Victoria 70.3. I wasn’t at all happy with having to make that decision, but when I got off my bike and hobbled through transition to rack my bike, looking for all the world like a human leaning Tower of Pisa, I knew that it was the decision to make. That was me, being mature and all that.
I may or may not have shed a tear of frustration, disappointment and yes, even a little embarrassment. I guess deep down, my heart just wasn’t into hurting myself for the sake of running around the lake twice.
Still, it sucks.
On the bright side, I had my fastest ever 1/2 iron swim (not fast by fast standards, but who cares. Fast for me. And if you tell me the swim was short, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you.)
My bike was very average and the indicator that I wouldn’t be running started to become apparent to me when my leg went numb and my back flared up again. I told myself I’d pull out of the bike after the first loop but as I rode right past the turnoff, but I guess my stubbornness kept me going. My internal dialogue at that time went something like this:
“Ow. Stop.”
“Hey, aren’t you turning?”
“Nah, might as well go ’round again.”
“Ok. But still. Ow.”
“Oh shut up.”
Let me tell you, I’ve see suns set faster than the time it took me to ride that 2nd loop. Sheesh.
So now, time to heal this crooked body of mine and really try to figure out what’s wrong. Being injured just plain sucks.
My partner-in-crime and I decided on a 2 week “don’t-sign-up-for-anything” period to prevent the whole “that was awesome, let’s do it again/that sucked, I need redemption” thing. This does not stop me from googling races and planning out adventures. A girl needs something to look forward to, ya know?
Big, huge thanks to my brother for coming with us and holding down the fort as I rolled out of bed at 4:30am for this silly hobby… Big, huge thanks to Liz for always being up for anything… Big, huge thanks to Steph and Chrissy for the pep talks… Big, huge thanks to the kids for being exhausting humans who make me laugh/want to tear my hair out.
Anybody got any bright ideas on what to do next?
The SMO's stories 